Chapter 171: Giant Killing

At first, since only Donnie was visible, I thought he had already won the match in short order.

But seeing that Donnie still held his sword at the ready, I realized the fight wasn’t over yet.

And yet, Lime was nowhere to be seen.

He had always been good at combining invisibility with high-speed movement to make himself hard to track, but this time he had vanished completely.

Still, Donnie would occasionally swing his sword with precision, showing that he was managing to track Lime’s invisible presence.

It was such a high-level battle that I couldn’t even attempt commentary—but then, the incomprehensible match suddenly became clear.

Donnie, who had been standing still in his stance, suddenly staggered violently.

The stumble looked as though he had been struck from directly behind, and the entire venue erupted in shock.

“Hey, Lime! Hold on a second! Splitting into clones is seriously cheating!”

Donnie shouted after taking the hit, but the match wasn’t stopped, and Lime’s attacks kept coming.

Donnie was desperately dodging—his movements looked almost like he was dancing.

Since we couldn’t see Lime at all, it looked even more that way.

Donnie didn’t even seem to have room to swing his sword, and as the onslaught continued, he shouted again:

“A third one?! That’s really cheating! Ref, stop the match already!”

But despite his protests, the fight wasn’t halted, and shockingly, Donnie ended up losing.

He had been shouting about all sorts of things, but from our perspective, we had no idea what had actually happened.

To find out, I headed over to Donnie, who had collapsed to his knees.

“Donnie-san, good work out there. What on earth was going on?”

“Sato! That damn Lime split into three! Invisibility plus high-speed movement and three simultaneous attackers—how’s that fair?!”

As if responding to his complaint, three bodies of Lime appeared, glittering in silver.

Sure enough, Lime had divided himself.

“So Lime has learned to split, huh? Can he go back to normal?”

In answer to my question, Lime immediately merged back into a single body.

His size was smaller, and most likely his abilities weakened while divided.

That meant each body was still just part of his whole—so it didn’t really break any rules.

After all, skills were permitted. If we banned this, then even the Dragonkin’s Dragon transformation would have to be disallowed.

“As long as he can return to one, it isn’t against the rules. It’s still Lime himself.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I lost to Lime again…!”

“You fell to a very powerful surprise move.”

“That wasn’t just a surprise move. Even if you knew about it, I’m not sure you could deal with it.”

For Lime to earn such words from Donnie… he really was incredible.

A huge upset had just taken place: the top favorite, Donnie, was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

As the venue buzzed with shock, the other two quarterfinal matches began.

The matchups: Mika vs. Helena, and Sheila vs. Silva.

Both were excellent matchups, with outcomes hard to predict.

Normally I would have bet on Sheila, but Silva’s unknown factor was overwhelming.

From what I’d seen in his fight against Shoji, another upset was entirely possible.

And so, despite the ongoing stir from Donnie’s defeat, the referee gave the signal, and the quarterfinals began.

The first to act was Helena, in her fight against Mika.

At the signal, she began chanting spells and launched her attack.

By rule, only beginner-level spells were allowed to reduce the risk of serious injury—but Helena’s beginner spells were still immensely powerful.

Each time Mika blocked, she was blown back.

But after a few hits, Mika smirked.

She had apparently read Helena’s spell patterns, and with graceful movements, slipped inside her guard and delivered a crushing blow.

That single strike drained Helena of her will to fight.

Thus, Mika advanced to the semifinals.

In contrast, Sheila vs. Silva played out like a flowing duel between masters.

Silva’s attacks looked slow, but each contained refined technique, giving them overwhelming impact.

Sheila had built her reputation on superior technique and insight, pulling off countless giant-killings before—but this time, the difference in skill was undeniable.

Against such an opponent, Sheila’s style had no chance of causing an upset.

She showed resilience and fought tenaciously, but in the end, Silva won.

It hurt to see Sheila lose, but in this case, the opponent was simply too much.

I couldn’t help but wonder who Silva really was—but that was something to ask after the tournament.

With this, the final four were set: Ashros, Lime, Mika, and Silva.

An utterly unexpected lineup.

I had confidently predicted Ren, Donnie, and Sheila, but my choices were already all wrong.

It was disappointing to miss the mark—but at the same time, it had turned into an unpredictable and thrilling tournament.

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